Do you want a beam sword in the game?

[An0n3]

just make the katana and nodachi snap in half if struck against anything that isn’t soft flesh

[123nick]

[quote=“Raital, post:23, topic:3353”]Oh god. Please not a chain sword. Not for any particular balance reason, but I can’t get the image of what happened to this idiot did with a chainsaw in the town I was living in. He took a chainsaw, revved it up, and tried to cut a branch off a tree…from the bottom of the branch. The chainsaw hit the wood, bounced off of it, and the fool basically cut his own head off.

All I can think about now when I think of a chain sword here is the PC blocking an attack with it, the chain catching on the bone of the zombie, ricocheting and the PC’s lopping his own fool head off.

Plasma is all sorts of fun, though. Especially if you were to implement those plasma forks in such a way that the important parts of zombies simply…cease to be. In fact, Plasma forks mounted on the front of the car to convert the Z problem into bright plasma sounds like a completely wasteful but beautiful use of electricity. Or take a UPS, hook it up to a couple banks of ultracapacitors, hook those ultracapacitors up to silver tonfas sufficiently electrically isolated from yourself, provide hand triggers you squeeze to forcefully connect the wiring to the silver (spring force forcing said connection to be NO), touch the two ends to opposite sides of the zombie, and say goodbye to that zombie. Nothing like the smell of ozone to realize you’re completely nuts and in love with electricity. Yum.[/quote]

Do you have like, a video of this or where exactly this happened, which town, and other more specific details?

[Rivet]

Do you have like, a video of this or where exactly this happened, which town, and other more specific details?

I’m sure that they really do not want to go digging through those unpleasant memories.

If you’re so morbidly intrigued that you have to see for yourself, here’s a hint: Google is free to use and anybody can operate it.

[Nighthawk]

I don’t understand why so many people are against the idea of a beam sword. The game’s not exactly a stunning example of realism right now, anyway; it sort of follows the rule of Why The Hell Not.

Zombies that shoot lightning? Why the hell not.
Giant plant and fungus armies? Why the hell not.
Humongous monstrosities made out of the bodies of dead things which we shall call a Jabberwock? WHY THE HELL NOT.

Beam sword?

…

You know the answer.

[Rivet]

Electric zombies are zombies full of malfunctioning CBMs. see: electric arc, Tesla coil
The evil plants and fungus are a result of the goo. see: witches’s broom, chytridiomycota, venus flytrap
Jabberwocks are more of the same, corpses fused by the goo. see: transglutaminase

Laser swords? A laser beam, just like any kind of light, never just ‘stops’, unless something in its way absorbs or reflects the energy. That means your ‘beam sword’ would likely be a mile or two long.

We already have laser weaponry. They might stretch the bounds of physics a bit by being so powerful despite their tiny little power supplies, but C:DDA generally plays fairly close to hard scifi whenever possible.

[Iron_Foot]

[quote=“Rivet, post:35, topic:3353”]Electric zombies are zombies full of malfunctioning CBMs. see: electric arc, Tesla coil
The evil plants and fungus are a result of the goo. see: witches’s broom, chytridiomycota, venus flytrap
Jabberwocks are more of the same, corpses fused by the goo. see: transglutaminase

Laser swords? A laser beam, just like any kind of light, never just ‘stops’, unless something in its way absorbs or reflects the energy. That means your ‘beam sword’ would likely be a mile or two long.

We already have laser weaponry. They might stretch the bounds of physics a bit by being so powerful despite their tiny little power supplies, but C:DDA generally plays fairly close to hard scifi whenever possible.[/quote]

What about a beam sword like Travis Touchdown’s in No More Heros?

[Rivet]

So I punched ‘travis touchdown beam sword no more heroes’ into ze google and I have to say:

1. That thing looks distinctly like a fluorescent light fixture.

2. Okay, that almost seems plausible compared to the usual Star Wars type laser-sword-gadget.

3. I still don’t really like laser-swords, and putting something about it having a metal thing on one end in the description field doesn’t really change that.

4. If we absolutely have to have a laser sword, I vote that it eats UPS charge crazy fast and carries a hefty chance of accidentally maiming/blinding/electrocuting yourself.

[Inquisitor_Dust]

Hmm… I’m not opposed to laser sword type thingies (though I’m more inclined towards a No More Heroes style), but methinks that it’d be one of the [SILLY] items if we ever get the item types/toggles in the game. I’m thinking it’d be hooked up to a UPS, though I’m not so sure about accidentally stabbing yourself every 10 attacks

[Belteshazzar]

The level of technology available in game is already pretty close to ‘beam sword=rare tech artifact’.

Even staying within foreseeable technology, it could easily be something like the System Shock series ‘laser rapiers’ which were such as the;

TS-4: technically a monofilament weapon suspended by a charged field (ie: weaponized cheese wire for the 22 century.)

Mark IV: a baton of porous, highly reflective material that released a stored laser charge when bent out of alignment (basically a weaponized fiber optic cable/capacitor.)

Now, a ‘proper’ energy blade of plasma or somesuch would go alongside your Light Absorbing bionics, the Teleporter, Plasma weapons, Earthquake generators, ect.

[vultures]

I don’t understand why so many people are against the idea of a beam sword. The game’s not exactly a stunning example of realism right now, anyway; it sort of follows the rule of Why The Hell Not.

I know the answer, just hadn’t wanted to spoil the suRprise.
The game ain’t a realistic simulator, it is a survival-oriented RL that only tries to stay consistent with the original author’s line of ideas. That means we get to play what people enjoy when testing current builds, and further improvements based upon gaming experiences.
My gaming experience with lightsabers is not within Cataclysm and alike pieces of gaming software.
Eventually we’d all enjoy the tool that lets us create c.o.m.p.l.e.t.e mods with our own varieties of items and monsters alike. So, Go Star Wars when that happens.
Meanwhile, I just dun’wanna some vagabond NPC character picking up a crystal off some zombie’s nostrills and whacking my arse to death all Darth Vader style. Think that kind of depression isn’t about CataDDA at all.

[John_Candlebury]

Dont really know the validity of this site but look what i found:

Scientists create never-before-seen form of matter

The guys found a way to make photons interact with each other and form “photon molecules” under no reason does this mean that actual light sabers could be real but does open for interesting possibilities (crystals made from light)

[Natures_Witness]

I think lightsabers in Star Wars were actually supposed to be a small, high energy force field that went straight out and curved back on itself. When it touched anything, the incoming and outgoing parts of the field shorted out, zapping whatever it was in contact with. In any event, if we must have a beam-swordesque weapon, I move for either the SS2 shock stick variety or the Deus Ex style quasi-solid blade built with Nantes (aka the Dragon’s Tooth Sword or DTS). Cata has some high-tech stuff, but afaik it has no mention of sustained energy fields (actually I think maybe one of the CBMs mentions force fields, but that could be just a one-off).

[meowmers]

[quote=“Natures Witness, post:42, topic:3353”]Deus Ex style quasi-solid blade built with Nantes (aka the Dragon’s Tooth Sword or DTS).[/quote]Thats the ticket! a nanite sword that runs on UPS or internal power would fulfill the requirements of sword-from-nowhere and fit in the lore.

how would the heat from the laser/plasma/light sword not burn your hands and face swinging it around?

[vache]

If I understand correctly, the DTS wasn’t necessarily a beam or anything, it was just infinitely self sharpening from the nanites.

[meowmers]

[quote=“vache, post:44, topic:3353”]If I understand correctly, the DTS wasn’t necessarily a beam or anything, it was just infinitely self sharpening from the nanites.[/quote]yeah, it could grow from a small hilt or the forearm as a CBM alternative to Claws

[Flare]

While a Katana is fast and sharp, they are very bad against an armored opponent and would be inferior to a morning star against plate armor.

Heck, properly made maille is enough to stop a katana. Quality leather armor would also provide protection assuming the guy using the sword hadn’t sharpened it to stupid-sharp levels without though about the usability beyond the first person he meets.

[hr]

There was a plasma “sword” in an open source XCOM game that I really liked. It had one charge, and that charge was only ever enough to get off one strike at close range before the fuel was spent. The briefness of the usability being said, it did do an otherworldly amount of damage when used.

There is also another plasma sword I recall in an old snes game called Metal Warriors. It’s basically a short range plasma thrower that the mech nevertheless swung like a sword. When it was swung it was like swinging a fluffy whip. The game somehow managed to pull making the thing look incredibly deadly off though, probably because the designers didn’t go the fancy unrealistic route and actually gave the sword the colours of something incredibly hot. On top of this, I think it gave me the impression that such a weapon was only useable because the mech swinging it around had a butt-load of thermoarmor to protect itself from the heat that it was releasing at arms-length, and would probably be unusable to any human being without protection.

Both these iterations injected a level of creativity and reworked the concept of an energy sword, if you’re going to throw away realism and consistency for thematic purposes, at the very least don’t copy the issue outright with a bit of fluff attached to it and then call it the end of the day. There is a paradox that goes bundled together with the rule of cool, and that is if you just toss in all the things that you think is cool without any thought to the each of those things’ relation to each other, the game might not actually be so cool at the end. Expanding and creating a game isn’t as easy as playing it, and some thought has to go into the process of making the setting consistent and, on some level, believable and cohesive.

[KA101]

IIRC the Dragon’s Tooth needed room for its blade: basically a nanite collection that you could solidify into the “blade” on command. Smushing the hilt in with the GEP, plasma rifle, flamer, and your batteries, picks, and multitools…wouldn’t work.

(It’s also called “Non-Eutactic Blade” in MJ12’s notes. Presumably because it wasn’t a solid piece of metal?)

Thus: forearm attachment would be non-retractable, and a sword would retain full volume requirements (but would likely be significantly lighter?).

[Sarge]

I want a beam sword to NOT be in the game. Because they are silly. And not good silly, just bad silly.

[kevin.granade]

if you’re going to throw away realism and consistency for thematic purposes, at the very least don’t copy the issue outright with a bit of fluff attached to it and then call it the end of the day. There is a paradox that goes bundled together with the rule of cool, and that is if you just toss in all the things that you think is cool without any thought to the each of those things’ relation to each other, the game might not actually be so cool at the end.

Good point, and echoes what I’ve been saying. NaturesWitness and I came up with a heat blade concept that even GlyphGryph ended up being happy with, which is saying something. Don’t just say “I want a beam sword”. A lot of people have outlined the issues with a stereotypical beam sword in this thread. Feel free to suggests alternate depections of a beam sword that work around these criticisms, but just “add a beam sword” doesn’t really help.

That having been said, with the mod manager stuff we’re planning on having various options you can enable for types of content that we don’t feel fits in the main game, “sci-fantasy” is likely to be one of them for exactly this kind of “rule of cool” type stuff. Of course you still need someone to add the thing.

[Orthum]

How about the Mc Burney Sword, Basicaly using a fusion battery in the hilt, you have mildly sharp sword, with nickelchrome wire running through it to the end and back to create the loop, Then you can make a sword that would burn whatever you hit. It would be like being hit with a sword with hot toasters on it. That and if you dip it in gas or send gas up along the blade aswell requiring gasoline aswell, that would ignite into a sort of beam blade. Lots of heat/fire damage, some cutting… I like axes more,
Idea’s for modifiers for swords, axes, maces, would be cool, like extra dense edge, mono-wire edge, actually thats all I have really.